... and taking away with the other. This seems to sum up so much of what passes for philanthropy. You become rich by squeezing people's pockets and then you "give back to society" by handing over a small fraction of what you took. I was thinking of this when reading that the recent cottage cheese boycott in Israel was quietly sparked by a UK venture capital firm, Apax Partners, whose desire to make its Israeli asset "sweat", as they say in the business, was also making the poor Israeli consumer sweat.
The founder of Apax Partners, Sir Ronald Cohen, is hailed as a great friend of Israel and he has indeed given large amounts of his time and money to the country. I'm not sure what financial interest in or influence over Apax he still wields, perhaps none. But reading the following unappetising nuggets made me realise once again how so much money that is "generously" donated should never have been taken in the first place.* It's heartening to see how effective the cottage cheese boycott has been. Now let's see it replicated far and wide.
"Report: Tnuva was Advised it Could Raise Prices by 15%
Israel's Tnuva Food Industries was advised that it could raise its prices by 15% without affecting demand, Globes reports, quoting unnamed sources. According to the report, after Tnuva was acquired by Apax Partners it hired the McKinsey consultants to look at its pricing. McKinsey found that demand for hard cheese, white spreadable cheese, and cottage cheese was "inelastic" and that Tnuva could charge more. Since the advent of the cottage cheese crisis two weeks ago, which sparked a consumer boycott, Tnuva's cottage cheese sales have dropped by an unprecedented 25%."
And this from the Wall Street Journal:
"... in 2008, Tnuva was sold to Apax Partners, a London-based private-equity fund that moved aggressively to maximize profitability with an eye to reselling it down the road, according to people close to Tnuva and to Apax's own stated investment strategy.
"'[The cottage cheese boycott]is an expression of frustration of citizens who started to realize that Israel went very far from being an equal society to being a society controlled by a very small number of very rich people,'said Ariel Rubenstein, an economist at Tel Aviv University."
* I'm pointing out the irony of anyone who claims to love a country while simultaneously milking that country's inhabitants for all they're worth. Is it more acceptable to milk the inhabitants of country A in order to help country B, robbing Peter to pay Paul ? Of course not. But it is less ironic.
Update: George Soros, the billionaire Jewish investor and philanthropist, once made the following comment on the subject of private profit versus public good: "I have made it a principle to pursue my self-interest in my business, subject to legal and ethical limitations, and to be guided by the public interest as a public intellectual and philanthropist. If the two are in conflict, the public interest ought to prevail."
Update 2: Recently I learned that Sir Ronald Cohen is a non-dom (read the end of the piece). That is quite, quite unbelievable for someone who immigrated to the UK as a child ! Calls himself a social do-gooder yet has avoided paying taxes by being a "foreigner" when it comes to the Inland Revenue. Despicably unjust system - and sickening hypocrisy.
The founder of Apax Partners, Sir Ronald Cohen, is hailed as a great friend of Israel and he has indeed given large amounts of his time and money to the country. I'm not sure what financial interest in or influence over Apax he still wields, perhaps none. But reading the following unappetising nuggets made me realise once again how so much money that is "generously" donated should never have been taken in the first place.* It's heartening to see how effective the cottage cheese boycott has been. Now let's see it replicated far and wide.
"Report: Tnuva was Advised it Could Raise Prices by 15%
Israel's Tnuva Food Industries was advised that it could raise its prices by 15% without affecting demand, Globes reports, quoting unnamed sources. According to the report, after Tnuva was acquired by Apax Partners it hired the McKinsey consultants to look at its pricing. McKinsey found that demand for hard cheese, white spreadable cheese, and cottage cheese was "inelastic" and that Tnuva could charge more. Since the advent of the cottage cheese crisis two weeks ago, which sparked a consumer boycott, Tnuva's cottage cheese sales have dropped by an unprecedented 25%."
And this from the Wall Street Journal:
"... in 2008, Tnuva was sold to Apax Partners, a London-based private-equity fund that moved aggressively to maximize profitability with an eye to reselling it down the road, according to people close to Tnuva and to Apax's own stated investment strategy.
"'[The cottage cheese boycott]is an expression of frustration of citizens who started to realize that Israel went very far from being an equal society to being a society controlled by a very small number of very rich people,'said Ariel Rubenstein, an economist at Tel Aviv University."
* I'm pointing out the irony of anyone who claims to love a country while simultaneously milking that country's inhabitants for all they're worth. Is it more acceptable to milk the inhabitants of country A in order to help country B, robbing Peter to pay Paul ? Of course not. But it is less ironic.
Update: George Soros, the billionaire Jewish investor and philanthropist, once made the following comment on the subject of private profit versus public good: "I have made it a principle to pursue my self-interest in my business, subject to legal and ethical limitations, and to be guided by the public interest as a public intellectual and philanthropist. If the two are in conflict, the public interest ought to prevail."
Update 2: Recently I learned that Sir Ronald Cohen is a non-dom (read the end of the piece). That is quite, quite unbelievable for someone who immigrated to the UK as a child ! Calls himself a social do-gooder yet has avoided paying taxes by being a "foreigner" when it comes to the Inland Revenue. Despicably unjust system - and sickening hypocrisy.
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